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America’s Dependence on China Is a Crisis in the Making – Today, it is imperative to address China’s use of domestic policies like zero-COVID that can hold international supply chains hostage. A first step is building better resilience into our global supply chains—especially those important to sustaining a wartime economy. Part of the solution is working with maritime shipping partners in friendly countries—such as Germany (Hapag-Lloyd, 253 ships), Denmark (A.P. Moller Maersk, 730 ships), South Korea (HMM, 100 ships), Switzerland (MSC, 730 ships), France (CMA-CGM, 566 ships), and Taiwan (Evergreen Line, 205 ships)—to ensure access to commercial shipping and foreign markets. We must also address the potential for China to coerce and intimidate the Filipino and Indian sailors who make up the majority of commercial ship crews keeping the American economy afloat. Finally, increased domestic shipping and shipbuilding are key to both America’s national security needs and its economy. The American maritime industry must be able to compete globally. This will require setting a policy environment conducive to needed investments and innovation, while working with partners from allied countries to become less dependent on the Chinese supply chain. Heritage Expert: Brent Sadler
Railroad Strike Threat Shows How Unions’ Rigid Rules Often Hurt Workers – The logical solution would have been to improve their efficiency and expand operations. But a major sticking point in ongoing negotiations is that the unions vehemently oppose automation, despite evidence that it would drastically improve efficiency, reduce emissions, and likely lead to even more port jobs. Unions have served an important role historically, but their failure to adapt to the ever-changing world of work and their propensity to act like they own workers rather than serve them have resulted in unions often hurting workers. Workers have a right to organize and bargain for what they desire, but they should not be forced to pay for services they don’t want. Policymakers should protect workers’ rights to choose whether or not to join a union via right-to-work laws and should end “exclusive representation” so that unions do not have to represent workers who don’t want their representation. Heritage Expert: Rachel Greszler
Back to Campus and the Return of Shout Downs - Heritage Foundation research has documented dozens of speakers and students who have been shouted down and the threats to free expression posed by so-called free speech zones and bias response teams around the country. Some state lawmakers have appropriately responded with proposals that say any individual who is lawfully present in a public area of a public college campus has the right to listen and be heard. Free speech zones, which actually limit the space on campus property where individuals can speak freely, have been disbanded at some colleges through these same state legislative proposals. In some states, officials have directed college administrators to consider suspending or expelling students who participate in violent activity that results in censorship or the forcible silencing of professors or guest speakers. College leaders, though, should also consider the taxpayer resources and other investments being made to create and operate offices of “diversity, equity, and inclusion” (DEI) ostensibly created to foster civil—or at least tolerant—behavior on campus. Heritage Expert: Jonathan Butcher
The West Should Welcome the Middle Corridor – It is crucial for Europe that significant investment and infrastructure projects aim at removing geopolitical vulnerabilities, instead of accumulating them. The Three Seas Initiative represents a political alternative to the supply chain flows dominated by authoritarian regimes. Before the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the European Union (EU) declared its intention to expand the Trans-European Transport Network (TEN-T) toward the Eastern Partnership states. The main thrust was to develop the transport capacities of Georgia and Azerbaijan. In its July 2021 Economic and Investment Plan, the EU also allocated financial assistance to strengthen the digital transport corridor in the Caspian Sea and connectivity to the Black Sea. Romania is a strategic partner of the United States and has proven to be a reliable and active ally on NATO's eastern flank. With Western support to increase its railway and road capacities, Romania could become a vital commercial and military hub on the Black Sea, connecting the Caucasus and Ukraine to the rest of Europe. The postwar reconstruction of Ukraine, coordinated under the Three Seas Initiative, could integrate the functional core of Europe, from Poland through Romania. This would strengthen regional security and promote economic and political stability between the Black and the Baltic Seas. Heritage Expert: James Carafano
6 States Sue to Block Biden’s Student Loan ‘Forgiveness’ Scheme – The lawsuit by the six states follows another one filed by the Pacific Legal Foundation on behalf of an individual borrower. President Joe Biden’s student loan forgiveness scheme is an illegal power grab. That’s not a hard legal question. Biden and Education Secretary Miguel Cardona claimed to find authority for canceling some student loan debt in the 2003 HEROES Act, passed after the 9/11 terror attacks. That statute permits the secretary of education to act only when necessary to keep borrowers from being worse off with respect to their student loans as a direct result of an emergency. But in this case, Cardona made no effort to identify and tailor relief to affected borrowers. Instead, he set income thresholds as the sole criteria to qualify for debt cancellation ($125,000 for individuals and $250,000 for couples), which tell us nothing about whether those individuals suffered any financial harm from the COVID-19 pandemic. Because Biden’s education secretary knowingly is granting relief to millions of individuals who do not qualify, his actions unlawfully exceed the scope of the HEROES Act. Heritage Experts: GianCarlo Canaparo and Jack Fitzhenry
40 Years Later, the Left Goes to Court in Dubious Bid to Resurrect, Ratify Bygone ERA – Constitutional amendments proposed by Congress begin as resolutions introduced in the House or Senate. Of the thousands of resolutions, on a host of subjects, introduced since America’s founding, only 33 had the two-thirds support of Congress to be proposed, and 27 of those were approved by three-fourths of the states. Four of the unratified amendments are still pending before the states because Congress did not set a ratification deadline, though no states have ratified any of them for nearly a century. One amendment, proposed in 1978 to give the District of Columbia congressional representation, expired when only 16 states ratified it by its seven-year ratification deadline. That leaves the ERA. The last state to ratify the ERA before its expiration date was Indiana in 1977. Then, Illinois passed a resolution purporting to ratify in 2017, Nevada did so in 2018, and Virginia followed in 2020. Advocates claim that these “ratifications” were valid even decades after the deadline, while ratification rescissions by five states before the deadline were invalid. Heritage Expert: Thomas Jipping
Kamala Harris Remains True to Doctrine of Unequal Treatment – How is it that equity, a doctrine that tells government and the private sector to treat Americans differently because of their race, is becoming so pervasive in the Land of the Free? One reason is the deliberate obfuscation of its meaning. Fortunately, every once in a while Kamala Harris comes along to remind us of what it truly is. Displaying her inerrant tin ear and bad timing, the Veep chose this time the devastation that Hurricane Ian has caused to say that aid would be distributed according to race. Florida officials had to rush forward to deny that this was the case, lest already horrific conditions be made worse by confusion Harris left little room for misunderstanding, saying on Friday that, “It is our lowest-income communities and our communities of color that are most impacted by these extreme conditions and impacted by issues that are not of their own making. And so we have to address this in a way that is about giving resources based on equity, understanding that we fight for equality, but we also need to fight for equity, understanding not everyone starts out at the same place.” Heritage Expert: Mike Gonzalez
Vermont High School Under Fire as Girls, Parents Push Back Against Biologically Male Trans Student Using Female Locker Room – Two Vermont high school girls did what few of their peers have dared: When a biological boy who identifies as a transgender girl entered their locker room, they asked that student to leave. The Randolph, Vermont-based Randolph Union High School told the community in a Sept. 23 email that it is “launching a harassment investigation” —apparently into the girls’ conduct rather than the 14-year-old trans-identify student’s behavior, parents suggested. The Daily Signal has chosen not to name these students due to their youth, though local outlets have reported some of their names. Since then, The Daily Signal has spoken with a number of parents who are outraged that the school and Orange Southwest School District allowed such an incident to occur. These parents do not want biological boys in their daughters’ locker rooms, and they are bewildered as to why the school system apparently prioritizes the needs of students who identify as transgender over the needs of their daughters. Heritage Expert: Mary Margaret Olohan
In Minnesota, 6 Counties Have Duplicate Names on Voter Rolls – Minnesota election officials are investigating six counties where duplicate names were found on voter registration lists—in one case reaching more than 300 duplicate names in a single county. The Public Interest Legal Foundation, an election watchdog group, said it found 515 duplicate names on voter registration lists across six Minnesota counties where it filed complaints. Being listed on the voter rolls more than once could give someone the opportunity to vote more than once. The Public Interest Legal Foundation said it found the largest number of duplicate voter names in Hennepin County, where 334 names on the registration list appear to have two voter registration numbers despite having the same year of birth and address. This was the most duplicate names of any county in Minnesota. Heritage Expert: Fred Lucas